Jessica Bowman – Former Yahoo In-House SEO Evangelist

We hate it when our successful friends get the shorter end of the stick. Yahoo is shedding some serious talent. Among that talent is a good friend of mine and one of the stars in the SEO community.

Know anyone looking for THE In-House SEO expert? Jessica Bowman, widely considered the Ãºber-expert on In-House SEO, was laid off from Yahoo on Monday.

I’ve been sitting on this one for a few days until Jessica made an official announcement herself. She dropped the news this morning at her SEM / SEO In-house Blog saying,

“As you know by now, life at Yahoo! wasn’t pleasant this week and I’m happy to report that that their in-house SEO program is now so good, that I was laid off!

I knew that my job would be done when an in-house evangelist wasn’t needed anymore. On the way out I got hugs from engineersâ€¦ it was a job well done.“

Jessica was hired by Yahoo earlier this year to plan, promote and execute SEO techniques on various Yahoo properties. According to other sources I have in Yahoo, she did an amazing job but her position was not considered “bare-bones essential” for the continued operation of the company. (Ever wonder why a search engine might need a SEO?)

One of the last lines in her post reads: “Now that I’m publicly looking for an in-house SEO job, I’m going to invite you to an up-close-and-personal view of what’s out there, what it takes to get the really great gigs. Stay tuned!”.

Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen. I just don’t think there is going to be enough time for her to compile an action-packed job-search blog. I have a feeling Jessica is going to be picked up very, very quickly.